Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton on Friday defended remarks he made earlier this week that President Donald Trump could lead the United States into a nuclear war with Russia through misguided leadership.
The Massachusetts Democrat first made the claim Monday in a podcast interview at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.
"We might not even get to the long term because we could literally have a nuclear war with Vladimir Putin," Moulton said. Part of the reason for that war, he predicted, is Trump's "sole decision-making authority over nuclear weapons."
Moulton did not back down from his comments when pressed by CNN's Poppy Harlow on Friday.
"That's right," he responded when the quote was read back to him.
"Russia has now violated the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty," Moulton said. "And by the way, the Trump administration is not doing anything about that. This is a serious issue."
He admitted nuclear war was unlikely, but said it was a serious possibility.
"What Russia now says is they will 'escalate to deescalate.' They are willing to use [tactical] nuclear weapons to deescalate a conventional attack," Moulton said.
"What if they target American troops like American troops training right now in Poland with a nuclear attack? What are we going to do?" he asked. "That's why this is such a serious threat and why the Trump administration has to take this more serious."
Harlow pressed Moulton on whether former President Barack Obama shared some of the blame for the supposedly impending nuclear war, given his administration's failed "Russian reset."
"I think there should have been more done in the Obama administration," Moulton responded.
Still, he argued, "it's very different in comparison to the budding relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, and the unprecedented number of connections between the Trump administration and the Trump campaign and Russian regime."